The Greatest Show on Earth by Richard Dawkins

Richard Dawkins, seen at the 2009 Paraty International Literary Festival, Brazil

WHEN he has that fire in his belly, Richard Dawkins is arguably the greatest living populariser of evolution. His foundational work, The Selfish Gene, inspired a generation of evolutionary biology students (myself included), while The God Delusion was a powerfully effective self-esteem booster for atheists in the closet.

With his new book, splendidly titled The Greatest Show on Earth, Dawkins joins other popularisers in what has become almost a rite of passage – to “make the case” for evolution to the general public. It’s like the “ring the bell” game at the county fair where every able young male feels obliged to step up and swing the giant mallet. Two of the greatest efforts in recent years come in both flavours: atheist (Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne) and believer (Finding Darwin’s God by Kenneth Miller).

These previous books were so well written it seemed the challenge had been met. Another “argument for evolution” book could only be justified by a great new angle on how to reach the unconverted masses.

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Implying that your audience is stupid does not qualify as a great new angle. Yet this is precisely what Dawkins does. He opens the book by mentioning his two previous books about evolution, and then, with a nearly audible scoff, adds that back when he wrote those books (when people, apparently, were smarter?) he didn’t have to argue that evolution actually happened. “That didn’t seem to be necessary,” he says.

By the first chapter he is comparing his predicament to a history professor forced to teach “a baying pack of ignoramuses” and dealing with a “rearguard defence”. Today, he proclaims, “all but the woefully uninformed are forced to accept the fact of evolution”.

It’s really kind of comical. If “spot the condescensions” is a new drinking game, then bottoms up! There’s one in just about every chapter. Though Dawkins says from the outset, “This is not an anti-religious book”, he can’t help but knock religion throughout, For instance, he writes: “God, to repeat this point, which ought to be obvious, but isn’t, never made a tiny wing in his eternal life.” Young Earth creationists are, he writes, “deluded to the point of perversity”. You get the sense that Dawkins just can’t control it. It’s as if he suffers from an anti-religious form of Tourette’s syndrome.

“You get the sense that Dawkins can’t control it. It’s as if he suffers from anti-religious Tourette’s”

The Greatest Show on Earth is not a bad book – Dawkins wouldn’t know how to do that. His use of a crime scene investigation as a parallel for the narrative is at times very effective, particularly in showing the endless frustration of addressing the “gaps” critique of the fossil record.

But in the end, you have to wonder why Dawkins wastes so much time trying to argue with creationists. We all know that creationists are not rational thinkers. They are driven by beliefs, not by logic. Dawkins provides a transcript of his interview with the president of Concerned Women for America which reads like a Monty Python skit as the woman, a bullheaded creationist, simply answers all of Dawkins’s sophisticated argumentation by saying she’s not convinced – like a cartoon character standing in front of a hail of bullets taunting, “You missed me.”

It’s a shame Dawkins couldn’t take a few tips from his atheist colleague Jerry Coyne. Coyne’s powerful and popular book was, to quote Booklist, “far more presentational than disputatious”. That is a desperately needed attribute these days in making the convincing – and persuasive – case for evolution.